Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to techniques for processing electronic messages. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods, systems, and user interfaces for e-mail search and retrieval.
Collaboration using electronic messaging, such as e-mail and instant messaging, is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Many users and organizations have transitioned to “paperless” offices, where information and documents are communicated almost exclusively using electronic messaging. As a result, users and organizations are also now expending time and money to sort and archive increasing volumes of digital documents and data.
At the same time, state and federal regulators such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have become increasingly aggressive in enforcing regulations requiring storage, analysis, and reporting of information based on electronic messages. Additionally, criminal cases and civil litigation frequently employ electronic discovery techniques, in addition to traditional discovery methods, to discover information from electronic documents and messages.
One problem is that complying with these disclosure and/or reporting requirements is difficult because of the large amounts of electronic messages that accumulate. As broadband connections to the Internet are common in most homes and businesses, e-mails frequently include one or more multi-megabyte attachments. Moreover, these e-mails and attachments are increasingly of diverse and propriety formats, making later access to data difficult without the required software.
Another problem is that the disclosure and/or reporting requirements do not simply require that the electronic message be preserved and then disclosed. Often, the disclosure and/or reporting requirements are more focused toward information about the electronic message, such as who had access to sensitive data referred to in the contents of a particular electronic message. Some companies have teams of employees spending days and weeks reviewing e-mails in order to respond to regulatory audits and investigations. For these reasons, the inventors believe that users and organizations need electronic message analysis solutions to help lower costs in disclosing and/or reporting information related to electronic messaging.
In light of the above, there is a need for techniques for processing electronic messages that address some of the problems in the prior art.